Midlands Science collaborates with a wide range of partners and inspirational speakers to deliver interesting talks and workshops to Midlands schools during Science week, Maths week, Tech week and Engineers week as well as general outreach and events running throughout the year! This work demonstrates to students of all ages, the vast diversity of science, engineering, technology and maths in a practical and easy to understand manner.
Science Week in the Midlands was back in person this year with the Midlands Science Festival, funded by Science Foundation Ireland. A wide range of activities took place including a family Discovery Day in Tullamore supported by Integra and attended by over 1,200 people!! Visitors to the discovery day were able to get hands on with reptiles from the National Reptile Zoo, learn all about slime with Anyone 4 Science, discover the science behind superheroes with Dr Barry Fitzgerald, take a journey through space with Martin and the Exploration Dome and learn all about Dinos down under with thanks to Dale Treadwell.
A wide range of activities also took place in schools across the region during the week. Students in both primary and secondary schools got to explore the science of flight, Superhero Science, hands on experiments and some got to take a journey through our solar system in the exploration dome.
Online activities included a series of videos looking at the science of climate action and an event with driver Paul O’Connell taking apart what it takes to be a Formula 1 Driver. Midlands Science runs science outreach all year around to schools through its outreach programme and also runs a number of special projects such as Quiet Science, Innovate for Climate Action and Everyday Science. It reaches an average of 16,000 people per year and is supported by the Ireland Funds Private Donor Network, the Medtronic Foundation and a variety of private, public and philanthropic funders for different projects and activities.
Science Capital Training
Science capital is a conceptual tool developed by Professor Louise Archer and colleagues at King’s College London. It can be used to help understand how social class affects people’s aspirations and involvement in science. Midlands Science has adopted a science capital approach in its work, with a particular focus on under-served groups. We are delivering Science Capital training for youth and development workers in the midlands, in association with the Science Capital Research Team of University College London. The training will be delivered using best practice examples. This will provide the participants with increased confidence and skills with which to deliver STEM activities in informal settings. A vital part of the project is the delivery of train the trainer for some participants with UCL – this will ensure that the project can be scaled and its impact strengthened through local capacity.
Quiet Science
Quiet Science responds to requests received from those in the ASD student community and their advocates to develop and provide ASD appropriate STEM outreach. We have created a suite of appropriate outreach activities for this community and are currently running a number of online quiet science workshops in 2022. We have already run a four week programme in May 2022. These four workshops were delivered online by Christine from Anyone4Science with very positive feedback from all participants. The next batch of these online workshops will run for 6 weeks, during September and October. These workshops are fully online, free and open to students aged 7-12 years old.
Want to get involved? Our work focuses on students and schools but we also have a number of events for teachers, youth workers and the general public, especially during Science Week. Are you interested in getting your school/class or child involved in our free outreach programme? Sign up to our mailing list below to be the first to hear about our upcoming events and school workshops.